Apart from raising fares, this year’s Rail budget also lays stress on passenger safety and hygiene. According to Rail Minister Dinesh Trivedi’s 2012 Rail Budget, providing good and healthy sanitation to the passengers on long distant trains will be one of the most important tasks of the Govt. for the next one year.
For this purpose, it has been planned to install Bio-Toilets in more than 2500 railways coaches which will be used in Long distant trains. The Bio-Toilets will be manufactured at the Kapurthala Coach Factory in association with Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and will be installed in the coaches.
The total cost of manufacturing and installing one such bio-toilet is estimated to be around Rs. 1 lakh per unit which puts the total cost of this entire affair to be around Rs. 25 crores.
These measures are being taken by the Indian Railways as a part of its green initiatives and also to reduce the cost of cleaning the tracks which is currently over Rs. 350 crore per year.
How does a bio-toilet work?
The main principle is that the bacteria inside these toilets break down the waste excreta into water and gas. Water is passed through chlorine for purification and Gas is discharged into the atmosphere. In this video below you can see how does a Bio toilet actually work.